The objective of this proposal is to obtain funds for the training of PhD scientists committed to academic careers in nutrition research and chronic disease prevention. The importance of training future researchers in these two areas follows from our increasing awareness that nutrition is an underlying pathogenic component of many chronic diseases. These include obesity, diabetes and its complications, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), digestive diseases, chronic kidney disease (CKD), hepatic and colon cancer and cardiovascular disease. Although these disorders have traditionally been viewed as pathologies of the middle-aged and/or elderly, it is now clear that appropriate interventions for these conditions need to be initiated decades earlier in the life cycle. Interventions that can delay or prevent chronic disease(s) afford potentially profound public health benefit, both from reduced morbidity and mortality as well as from cost savings. A recent (2000) CDC study reported that obesity alone accounts for 9% ($180 billion) of national health care costs. The rationale for this proposal is based on the firm belief that nutrition is the most significant and tractable environmental factor that can be modified to prevent or delay chronic disease. This proposal therefore seeks funds to train the next generation of nutrition research investigators to address chronic disease prevention at the molecular, cellular, organismal and/or population levels. Support is requested for six predoctoral training slots for each of five years. All trainees are first admitted to a graduate degree program at the Friedman School and, after one year of coursework, are eligible to be admitted to the Training Program. Acceptance into the Training Program is predicated upon outstanding academic and research achievement during the first year. Faculty preceptors on the Boston Health Sciences Campus, all members of Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, will provide exemplary research training to predoctoral students interested in the broad research areas of obesity, diabetes, metabolism, digestive diseases, endocrinology, genomics and gene therapy, epidemiology, and sieases of the kidney and pancreas. Program administration and trainee supervision will be the responsibility of the Program Director and a Steering Committee, which will meet every 6 months to review and discuss trainee progress and program enrichment. We sincerely believe that the proposed Training Program is a true investment in both the scientific futre of the trainees and the public health of this nation.